Helping Make our Communities Safer. Jaime is a Trial Attorney and Safety Advocate at Atlee Hall, LLP in Lancaster, PA representing seriously injured victims, wrongful death and those harmed by unsafe products and corporate neglect. Contact Jaime at 800-924-2309 or email jdjackson@atleehall.com.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Mazda announces new
limited airbag recall.

In
continuing coverage of the Takata airbag recall, the Detroit (MI) News (12/4, 504K) reports that
Mazda announced on Thursday that it would be recalling 40,000 more vehicles in
the US, though the recall is limited to high-humidity states. The News reports
that the models the automaker is recalling “include the 2003-2007 Mazda6,
2004-2008 RX-8, 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed6, 2004-2005 MPV, and 2004 B-Series Trucks”
in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The
News notes that, despite NHTSA urging companies to expand their recalls
nationwide, only Honda has told the safety agency that it will do so.

Bloomberg News (12/5, Clothier, Welch, 1.94M)
reports that Bob Carter, senior vice president of Toyota’s US operations, said
on Wednesday that the automakers affected by the Takata airbag recall are
planning on “hiring our own independent testing firm” to investigate the
defective airbags.

A second Bloomberg News (12/3, Green, Fisk, Plungis,
1.94M) article reports that US Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), a co-author of the TREAD
Act, reminded automakers of their responsibility under the act to “provide as
much helpful information as they can so we can help save lives,” noting,
“reporting the bare minimum doesn’t cut it.” The article also says that David
Friedman, NHTSA’s acting chief, told reporters in a phone interview “that the
industry must stop ‘fighting with us’ and ‘put safety first.’”

Group
warns car buyers of the most recalled vehicles. The Arizona Republic (12/4, Merrill, 1.21M)
reports on a list made by iSeeCars.com that found the 15 most recalled cars in
the US, as well as the average amount of time an owner could expect to spend
getting their vehicle repaired. The group found that the top three cars were
the Chevrolet Cruze with 4.8 recalls taking an average of 14.4 hours to repair,
the Toyota RAV4 with 4.7 recalls taking an average of 14 hours to repair, and
the Jeep Grand Cherokee with 4.4 recalls taking an average of 13.2 hours to
repair. The Republic notes that the Ford Focus and Honda Civic fared the best
with both averaging fewer than 1 recall that took only 2.6 hours to repair on
average